Currently configuration files are in JSONC format, which is a format without a specification, loosely standing for "JSON with comments". The VSCode version of it happens to allow trailing commas in arrays and objects, but this is a VSCode-specific implementation detail meant to make editing its own config files easier, rather than anything that is based on a specification. As such, VSCode config files are incompatible with other tools and tooling (and the fact that the file extension continues to be ".json" only exacerbates the problem).
I propose to use JSON5 instead of the more-or-less proprietary variant of JSONC (with .json extension, with trailing commas) that is currently in use in VSCode config files. JSON5 is a well-defined specification that includes comments, trailing commas, multi-line strings, single or double quotes, object keys without quotes and a couple other things borrowed from ECMAScript 5.1. It's still a strict subset of JavaScript and as such immediately understandable and usable for the vast majority of developers - in fact it could be argued that it's easier to understand than JSON, because it gets rid of some of the arbitrary and at times unexpected limitations that JSON imposes.
The most important thing, though, IMHO, is that Microsoft doesn't just forge its own path with proprietary implementations/extensions of JSON, creating essentially an "MS-JSON" variant, and instead embraces a cross-vendor, implementation-independent specification.
See also the discussion at microsoft/terminal#4232
Currently configuration files are in JSONC format, which is a format without a specification, loosely standing for "JSON with comments". The VSCode version of it happens to allow trailing commas in arrays and objects, but this is a VSCode-specific implementation detail meant to make editing its own config files easier, rather than anything that is based on a specification. As such, VSCode config files are incompatible with other tools and tooling (and the fact that the file extension continues to be ".json" only exacerbates the problem).
I propose to use JSON5 instead of the more-or-less proprietary variant of JSONC (with .json extension, with trailing commas) that is currently in use in VSCode config files. JSON5 is a well-defined specification that includes comments, trailing commas, multi-line strings, single or double quotes, object keys without quotes and a couple other things borrowed from ECMAScript 5.1. It's still a strict subset of JavaScript and as such immediately understandable and usable for the vast majority of developers - in fact it could be argued that it's easier to understand than JSON, because it gets rid of some of the arbitrary and at times unexpected limitations that JSON imposes.
The most important thing, though, IMHO, is that Microsoft doesn't just forge its own path with proprietary implementations/extensions of JSON, creating essentially an "MS-JSON" variant, and instead embraces a cross-vendor, implementation-independent specification.
See also the discussion at microsoft/terminal#4232